This magnificent volume takes the reader on an inspiring journey into the world of two completely different materials: ash and gold. It dares a unique insight into a tense relationship between the two by asking what values ash and gold epitomize within society and what myths surround the oldest materials known to human civilization. It also explores to what end they have been used in the visual arts beyond the purely decorative. With nearly 100 works from famous artists—including Joseph Beuys, James Lee Byars, Marcel Broodthaers, Rebecca Horn, Yves Klein, Jannis Kounellis, Gerhard Richter, Richard Wright, and many others—this book illustrates these questions most vividly while the included essays illuminate historical and contemporary interrelations of this pair of apparent opposites.

MARTa Herford is a contemporary art museum in Herford, Germany.